Thomas Harvey

Thomas Harvey (1812–1884) was a Quaker from Leeds. He was an abolitionist, chemist and businessman and founded the company Harvey & Reynolds with fellow Quaker Richard Reynolds. They began to manufacture the first small, practical and commercially available clinical thermometer developed by Clifford Allbutt in 1867.

Early life and career

Harvey was born in 1812 to a prominent Quaker family in Barnsley where his father made linen. He attended Barnsley Grammar School and the Quaker schools at Ackworth and York but left in 1826 at the age of 14 to became an apprentice druggist and chemist in Sheffield and Birmingham. Following his apprenticeship, Harvey moved to Leeds to start his own chemist and druggist business, first on Commercial Street, moving to Briggate in 1841. which the Leeds Mercury reported as "The Fearful Disaster in Regent's Park" with thirty people drowned.

Harvey became an expert in his field, advising doctors on correct dosage. He was interested in medical and scientific advances and his company, with business partner and fellow Quaker Richard Reynolds, specialised in early photographic equipment.

Anti-slavery activism Like many Quakers in 19th Century Britain, Harvey was an abolitionist and anti-slavery campaigner. Though slavery had been officially abolished in the British Empire in 1834, the freed slaves were reclassed as "apprenticed labourers" and were still required to work long hours for basic subsistence.